Cry of the Wolfsbane
by EE's Skysong
Summary: The strange and weird story of how Rahne might've learned about her powers.


Disclaimer: I don't own Marvel. I do, however, own my brain. (for sale, cheap! Good with spelling, letters, bad at calculating volume though! Price on demand!)  
  
(AN: Ok, yeah, have you ever had one of those dreams where you just wake up and you remember just about everything? (I have got to stop having caffeine just before bed!) Well, this is one of those things. Just a vague thingy. I was dreaming, so don't blame me if it makes no sense. Yeah, so this is my strange, twisted, ect., idea of how Rahne got her powers.)  
  
Rahne and her dad (I can't remember her mutant sob story, so I'm just going to guess that her dad is still alive. Otherwise, this is AU. That takes care of that.) were going on a road trip. It was just going to be a short little thing. Some research thingy or whatever. 'Boring', thought Rahne. Of course, it wouldn't be, but she didn't know that, did she?  
  
=2 HOURS LATER, SOMEWHERE IN SCOTLAND= (or wherever)  
  
After driving for two hours, her dad's junky old jeep broke down. According to her dad, it was a rock that had gotten stuck in the gas canister, causing them to run out faster because they didn't have as much fuel as they thought. Rahne just figured they'd been driving too fast.  
  
"Well," said Rahne's dad. "I guess we're gonna have to visit that village over there." He pointed at a path leading to a sign. Rahne gave her dad a skeptical look, but followed him anyway.  
  
They walked for another 20 minutes and finally reached the sign. It read: "Changeling Village: 2 miles." 'Changeling Village?'  
  
"2 miles?!?", asked Rahne. Her father shrugged.  
  
"We just follow the path and we'll get there in no time!", he said, sounding cheerful. 'Ugh. Could this get any worse?'  
  
So they started walking. And walking, and walking, and walking until Rahne was ready to scream. She didn't, because she happened to look up. Sitting in the trees were birds. Lots and lots of birds. And they all appeared to be looking at her! She shuddered a little. 'That's just creepy.'  
  
Her father perked up a bit when he saw another sign. This one read: "Welcome to Changeling Village! Pop. 2786" "Well, looks like we're here, Rahne!"  
  
"Great, dad." They walked a bit more, and arrived at a very large gate. A young woman stepped out and looked at them. She paused, and looked closer at Rahne. Feeling somewhat unnerved, Rahne took a step back. The woman pulled out a clipboard and perched a pen over it.  
  
"Name and number please," said the woman. Rahne gave her a confused look. "I'm the gatekeeper. I need your name and number, please."  
  
"What do you mean, name and number?" The woman frowned, as though this was something she should know.  
  
"Hmm. Well, I've never seen you around here, so I could be wrong." She opened the gate. "Welcome to the Changeling's Village." Rahne noticed the way she referred to it was different from all the signs around the village.  
  
As they walked in, they saw a large flock of assorted birds fly overhead. "That's odd," said her father. "Usually crows and owls hate each other."  
  
"Well, they don't seem to here.", said Rahne. She had seen owls and crows flying right next to each other in the flock.  
  
As they walked through the village, Rahne saw something else that had to do with birds. There were people everywhere in the small village. Some of them were watching her and her dad make their way down the block. Like the gatekeeper, they all seemed to do a double take when they saw Rahne. They ignored her father though. But that wasn't the wierd thing about it. As Rahne watched, a young girl in a white dress openly stared at her. Then, somehow, she appeared to stretch out the lacy sleeves of her dress and then... Standing right where the girl had been was a little white dove. The dove stared at Rahne, just like the girl had been, for a moment and then took off. 'Well, that was wierd.'  
  
Rahne continued watching the people. Almost every one of them "changed" right before her eyes. Not all of them turned into birds though. Some turned into cats, mice, and dogs. (A couple in a swimming pool turned into dolphins.) But the one that fascinated her most was a person in a gray sweatshirt that turned into a wolf. The wolf stared at her an extra long time before walking into an alley. Perhaps the oddest thing of all was the fact that her father didn't seem to notice a thing. 'There's something strange about this village.'  
  
"Hey look," said her father. "Maybe that old lady can give us directions." He pointed at a creepy looking old lady working a gas station pump. She leered at Rahne's dad until she saw Rahne. 'Something wierd really, really wierd is going on here.' The old woman gestured for them to come over.  
  
"My name is Tahana," said the old woman. "I see you are one of us." She inspected Rahne. "Hmm. You've never changed before, have you, dear?"  
  
"Huh?" The old woman frowned.  
  
"Perhaps you simply do not know about your powers yet.." The old woman walked around Rahne, taking every inch of her in. While she was doing this she added, "Sir, you can fill up a gas can if you need to." Tahana continued to inspect Rahne. 'Ugh. This is rather disgusting.'  
  
"Alright, Tehana, could you please tell me what's going on here?"  
  
"Oh, has no one explained it to you, my dear?" Rahne stared at her. "Obviously not. In this village, as you've probably noticed, people can change into animals. You, my dear, are like us, with that ability. Now then, to business." She stepped back by the store, and nodded to herself. "What animal here did you feel a connection to?" 'Huh?'  
  
"Well, er, the wolf I guess."  
  
"As I thought. Now think about that wolf. Picture it clearly in your mind. Think about seeing the human change." Rahne remembered the wolf-person had kind of stretched his shoulders and bent over. There had been a cracking sound as his bone structure adapted. "Now,with that image clearly in your mind, do what he did."  
  
Rahne closed her eyes and stretched her shoulders. She felt a funny tingle run down her body and a stretching sensation. Then, all of a sudden, she was a wolf. A russet red wolf, the color of her hair. She shook herself, trying to drop the funny change feeling.  
  
She stretched back her neck and howled, a sound of pure joy.  
  
=MILES AND MILES AWAY, THE XAVIER INSTITUTE=  
  
New mutant detected  
  
(So that's that. Like I said, it was a dream, so it shouldn't make much sense. R&R! I need to know if I'm completely mad.) 


End file.
